Your Heart Knows the Way
by inukagomeforever19
Summary: It's Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts, and there's a lot of new things in store for him. Finding the key to Voldemort's power, keeping up in school, and a new love... or maybe one that was there all along. HaHr
1. Chapter 1: The Intruder

Author Intro

Heya, and welcome to the revised first chapter of "Your Heart Knows the Way". I can't believe how much of a hypocrite I've become... Sorry for taking nearly 2 years to get back to this, but rest assured, I'm back on this like stink on a skunk! For new readers, this takes place after 5th Year, and will be a Harry/Hermione pairing (but I'm sure you already knew that ;P)

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It was a beautiful July day in Privet Drive, but there was at least one person not enjoying it. Some people called him The Boy Who Lived, but to most, he was just Harry Potter. His guardians, the Dursleys, were out for the weekend at a garden show, and he was lying on his bed, just doing nothing. The Dursley's had informed him that if any "trouble" happened, he wouldn't see outside of his old cupboard for a long while. Harry was perfectly happy to agree, as he didn't want to do much more than lie down and think. His mind kept going back to what had happened at the end of his last school year. He just kept seeing his godfather fall through the veil at the Department of Mysteries, again and again, until his brain burned with the image of it. He rolled over, and, as he had been wont to do since term ended, fell asleep in the middle of the day.

He woke up to a noise in his room. It was hard to see anything, owing to the fact it was apparently nightime. He could, however, make out the outline of a person near his door.

Even though his instinct said not to, he grabbed his wand off the bedside table and yelled, "Stupefy!" at the intruder. But the instant before the curse hit, a female voice yelled "Protego!" and his own spell was thrown back at him.

His one thought before he lost consciousness: "Oh, she's going to kill me…"

The girl paced around the room, muttering. "Oh boy, what have I done now? Well, it's his fault!" she declared to the silent room. "He's just too paranoid!" Sighing, she walked over to the unconscious boy and, tapping him with her wand, said, "Enervate".

Harry jerked up, looking around sharply. "Hermione, what are you doing here!" he practically yelled. As an afterthought, he added, "And don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Well," she replied, "maybe if you hadn't been asleep, you would have noticed that I didn't "sneak" up on you at all."

"Oh, right." he replied, looking sheepish.

"And do you really think it's a coincidence that I happen to show up the same night that the Dursley's are gone?" She smirked, then realized she could barely tell which direction to face. "Ummm, Harry …" The brunette looked around. "Where's the light here?"

"Oh," the surprised boy replied. He was so used to being up at night, he hadn't even realized that it was dark.

He got up and flicked the light switch. They were both dazzled by the sudden brightness. Harry looked over at Hermione. Her exceptionally curly hair shone to his eyes, and she appeared to have gotten a tan. As he looked at her, he noticed a weird, floaty feeling in his body. He'd have to check with Hermione on the side effects of being stunned.

He apparently stared a little too long, because Hermione questioned, "Something wrong, Harry?" her eyes full of concern. She knew how much the prophesied boy had been through, and she hated when he was unhappy.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "No, nothing's wrong."

She appeared satisfied, and proceeded to sit down on his bed. Her head suddenly jerked up, and she looked around the room nervously. "Umm, Harry? Why hasn't the Ministry sent an owl yet? We both used underaged magic…"

Harry laughed. "Dumbledore didn't want to take any chances of me hesitating to act if something happened. He managed to shield this house from the Ministry's detection."

"Oh." Hermione visibly relaxed. "Why were you asleep at this hour Harry?"

The raven-haired boy tried to make something up in his mind, but he just couldn't lie to her. He reconciled himself to tell her the truth. "It's the only way to escape, even if it's only for a little while." He stated quietly.

"Escape?" She looked confused. "From what?"

He sighed. "Well, I just keep thinking about Sirius, and what I could have done to stop him going through the veil. I could have stopped it happening, I just know I could have!" he emotionally cried out. He knew the only person he could trust with things like these was Hermione. Ron didn't have enough emotions to understand what he was going through. And Dumbledore was always too hard to reach. As weird as it was showing all these emotions to his best friend, it was all he could do.

She looked exasperated. "Now, Harry, we've told you a million times, you could not have prevented his death. It was not your fault. It was Voldemort's. HE lured you to the Department of Mysteries. HE used your love for Sirius to get you to the prophesies, and HE tried to kill us, NOT YOU!" She finished, almost yelling in Harry's face. "What will it take for you to believe us?"

"I don't know," he replied "I just don't know what or who to believe. I can't even believe myself lately, with all the dreams I have." He looked down at the floor as he said this, not wanting to see Hermione's face as he said this, knowing what expression she would be wearing. Unfortunately for him, she had other plans.

She gently took his face and guided it to look at her. "Harry, look at me. Would I lie to you?" she queried.

"No." He had to admit, he had total faith in her.

"Then listen to me. You-are-not-to-blame-for-Sirius's-death! You hear me, stop beating yourself up about it! Everyone needs you to be focused, and if you keep blaming yourself, Voldemort's going to get exactly what he wants! You'll be out of the picture, and he can take over again! We _need_ you Harry…" and then, she murmured, looking away, so softly he wasn't sure he heard it: "_I _need you."

He didn't really want to ask her, and he didn't want to argue anymore, so he just said: "Look, let's just let go of this for now. Why are you here in the first place?"

She looked shocked and then really annoyed. "Crud, I forgot this whole time!" She fumbled in her pocket, and then pulled out a seemingly ordinary small ball of yarn. "They thought it would be less conspicuous." She stated.

He looked at her, confused. "_Who _thought _what_ would be less conspicuous?"

"Oh, right, sorry. The Order sent me to tell you that they moved the headquarters. Grimmauld Place hasn't let them in since Sirius died."

Harry froze.

She immediately looked panic-stricken. "Oh my God, sorry Harry, I didn't think."

"It's okay," he mumbled. "Just one more thing for them to blame me about."

"Good _grief_ Harry, will you let it go? They are not blaming you! It's just something that happened! Now if you'll let me finish?"

He nodded, still looking downcast.

"Well, I was the only one really available to come, since everyone is busy. This string is a portkey to the new house. It's should be activated at seven o'clock."

They both turned to look at the alarm clock on his bedside. It read five o'clock. "Well," she proclaimed. "That gives us two hours to do whatever we want." She suddenly yawned. "Oh… God, I'm tired…we've been getting irregular hours of sleep at the headquarters." She looked at him. "Maybe we could take a nap?" she suggested.

Harry looked at her quizzically. "How? What if the portkey goes off?"

"Well," she replied. "We could use your alarm."

Harry laughed. "That thing hasn't worked in years. The Dursley's moved it from Dudley's room after he smashed it for waking him up too early."

"Oh." She looked nonplussed. "Well," she said. "We could tie the portkey to us, and then it would wake us up when it went off."

He thought about it a moment. "Yeah, I guess we could do that. But where would you be?"

She blushed. "Well, I figured we could share the bed." She then hurriedly said: "That's only if you don't mind, you don't have to do it if you don't want to."

The raven-haired boy blushed as well. "No… I, I don't mind. Just… could one of us be on top of the covers, and one under?" He looked bashful as he said this.

"Sure." She looked relieved. "Well, let's get it ready then."

They climbed on top of the bed, and proceeded to tie some of the yarn to their arms. They settled down, and Harry tried to calm himself enough to sleep. "_Why'd you have to make such a big deal about being on different levels on the sheets?" _He shook his head, trying to rid himself of thoughts that would make it impossible for him to sleep.

He settled down again, trying not to think about Hermione, and drifted off, his thoughts a confused jumble.

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Well, that's the first chapter of my first fanfic! Please review guys; I _really, REALLY _need to know how I'm doing. I will take any criticism, as long as it's constructive, and not just flaming. Tell me your ideas, your remarks, what you like, what you hate, anything, so long as I can take it and use it to make this story better. That's all for now, and again, sorry for taking so long to get back to this. Oh, also, I still have yet to revise the second chap, so, unless you see my author's note at the top of the next one saying it's the revised one, read at your own caution.


	2. Chapter 2: The Surprise

A/N: This is my revised second chapter of Your Heart Knows the Way. At least this was the easy part, now I have to get to actually writing a new chap lol Oh, and I forgot this last chapter: Harry Potter and any related characters do not belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling, who, by the way, should have either killed her publisher for not allowing the 7/7/07 release date, or been killed herself, FOR allowing it. It was TWO---WEEKS---EARLIER for Christ's sake! (sorry for the rant)

_Italics-thoughts_

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Order of the Phoenix Headquarters- 6:55 PM

"I can't believe we're getting to see him so soon again!" Exclaimed a tall, red-haired boy, who was currently jumping about. "And to have him stay here too? This is bloody brilliant! We get almost the whole summer together!"

"Ooooh. Wonderful. Sheesh, you make me sick Ron, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were Ginny." Said an even taller boy, who was standing next to what looked like an exact double.

A much smaller, also red-headed girl, who was currently blushing, nevertheless threatened: "If you don't shut up, school rules or not, you'll BOTH be getting Bat-Bogey Hexes! And if you thought what I did to those Death Eaters was bad, let me tell you, I can make it a WHOLE lot worse than that!" The twins huddled in actual fear of this small girl.

A voice broke into the scene: "Will you all keep it down? Harry's going to be here any minute, and we all want him to see how happy we are to have him here, and that he's going to be having a proper birthday party for once."

"Yes mum," all the children chorused.

"Good." The slightly plump witch said. "Now all we have to do is wait for Harry."

They all stared at the marked out circle where he and Hermione were going to appear. The minutes ticked by, until a countdown began in everyone's heads. "_10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…"_

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Harry was woken by a familiar jerk behind his navel. As he traveled almost instantaneously to his destination, he sleepily tried to figure out why he had a nagging suspicion something was going to go wrong when he arrived.

Then, with a loud "thump", he landed in the middle of a large group of people, who all looked very stunned. They stared at Harry for a few seconds, and then two types of reactions occurred, depending on the age group of the individual.

All the adults in the room gave secret smirks and knowing winks to each other, while all the teenagers, who Harry, shaking off his post-drowsiness, recognized as the Weasley children, burst out laughing. All except for one, that is.

Ginny Weasley looked upon the scene in front of her with growing dread. Even after 5 years, she still hadn't given up on Harry. To her eyes, Harry, who had just realized he had his arms around a certain brown-haired girl, was VERY close with Hermione. She was devastated, but her friendship with Hermione was special, and she wouldn't let anything ruin it.

So she tried her best to force a smile on her face, but her heart was still torn, and the resulting leer, had Harry seen it, would have sent him running to Voldemort, and begging him to kill Harry, right then and there. As it was, he was too busy occupying himself with untying the used portkey from his and Hermione's arms.

Having succeeded, he realized that the bushy-haired girl in front of him was still out of it. He gently prodded her. The brunette mumbled and pulled Harry tighter against her. The subsequent blush that rose onto his face had the room break into a fresh round of laughter. He shook Hermione a little, hoping to wake her and get themselves out of the embarrasing situation.

She looked up, eyes still blurry, and, not realizing where they were, smiled. "Hey Harry. What's going on, is the Portkey about to go off?"

Harry just blushed more. "Actually…" He gestured around. "It kind of already did…"

Hermione followed his hand, and catching sight of the fact they weren't alone, jumped up and gave a sheepish grin, her own face red.

Harry just sat there, still too stupefied to really do anything reasonable. All this had taken place within the space of about a minute, so he was having a hard time coping with everything. As he looked around, he noticed balloons, streamers and other decorations covering a large room. He stared at the people, and saw they were all carrying gifts.

At the center stood Ginny, who had managed to compose herself so that she didn't look like something from a slasher movie, holding a cake with the words "Happy Birthday Harry!" decreed in color changing icing, while a miniature Harry flew around on a broomstick, chasing an equally minute golden snitch. He suddenly realized that today was July 31, in other words, his own birthday.

Everybody else had gotten over their shock and laughter by now, and all yelled in unison: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!" Harry was overjoyed at the thought of his own real birthday party, reminiscent of Dudley's. _"Well, except for the screams and tantrums when he doesn't get as many presents as he wanted."_ He slowly got up, and grinning, said "you all didn't have to do this for me!" Mrs. Weasley walked over. "Oh, yes we did, you deserve to have a good birthday for once, Ron's told me all about what those dreadful muggles do to you."

"_Well, can't deny that logic."_ Having forgotten all about the portkey incident with Hermione, he sat down to enjoy his birthday, all the people crowding around him. He saw all of the Weasley family, except Percy. It seemed they were still at odds with each other. He also noticed Remus Lupin, and Tonks, standing quite close. Everyone gave him their respective gifts. Ron had got him a new Chudley Cannons book. The twins had a box of assorted Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Lupin gave him an advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts book. "Thought Dumbledore's Army could use a few new tricks." He admitted, smiling widely. Present after present kept coming, until only Ginny was left. She handed him her present.

He opened it, and pulled out a silver pendant of a lion. "I thought you'd like it, being in Gryffindor and all." She said quietly, trying and failing to mask the blush on her cheeks. "Thanks Gin, I'll never take it off." He said, grinning broadly at her.

There was a sudden commotion on the stairs. Everyone looked over. Hermione stood there, seemingly having gotten over her embarrassment about earlier. She was struggling with a heavy package. She brought it over, and with a loud "thunk", dropped it on the table. "Well, Harry," she said breathlessly, "are you going to open it or not?" Harry, who had been staring at it, trying to figure out what on earth "it" was, shook his head, and tore the paper.

Everyone "Oooooooh" 'd at the gleaming stone Pensieve sitting on the table. Harry stared in wonder at the bowl in front of him. "Hermione…" he breathed. "It's incredible! How on earth did you afford it?" "Well," she smirked, "I have my ways." She grinned at him, and Harry grinned back. The rest of the night went well, and everyone had loads of fun playing wizard games, including some Harry had never heard of. They laughed loudly, many times, and all agreed it was an awesome party. As the night crept on, everyone eventually had to go to bed. Slowly the number of people dwindled, as they bade goodnight to those still there. Soon it was only him, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley.

Hermione came over and hugged the raven-haired boy with a blush staining her cheeks. "Happy Birthday Harry. I wish we could have done this for you before." She smiled and made her way up the stairs.

Molly Weasley then turned to Harry. "You really should get to bed dear, it's late. I'll clean up, don't worry about it."

So Harry set about gathering up his presents, which took some time as the guests had seemed to occasionally remember some box from out of nowhere containing another gift for him.

Struggling with his load of presents, Harry started up the stairs when he realized he had no idea where to go. As he stood there dumbfounded, Molly came up behind him and offered to levitate his gifts. "Thank you." He said breathlessly: those presents had been really heavy. "No problem at all Harry! Silly me, not showing you where you needed to go. Just follow me, I'll show you where you and Ron will be sleeping." She took him to a huge room with two very comfortable-looking beds. She gently deposited his presents in a corner, and bade him goodnight.

As Harry climbed into bed, (Ron was already snoring) he thought back, and decided that this had been his best birthday ever. He sighed. Now all he had to do was live to see another one.

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Again, sorry for the extremely long update, hopefully it won't take as long to get the next one out. Please review, as I really need to know if this sucks or not.


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